Ariana Thacker - Founder of MoldCo on How Mold Toxicity Changed Her Life and Inspired a Mission-Driven Startup

Welcome back to the Casey Adams Show. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to share something that's shaped how I think about growth. When I sat down with a broadcasting legend and one of the biggest inspirations in my life, he told me some of the world's greatest people are driven to learn and get better every single day. That mindset of never stopping, of consistently sharpening your craft and is what this show was built on and it's exactly what the Adobe Digital Academy is doing today. By being there to help people up level and gain new skills with their new content on Coursera, Adobe is expanding access to real in demand skills in areas like AI, design, marketing and creative workflows. From full professional certificates to short form courses, they've built a catalog designed for learners at any level. Whether you're a student, lifelong creator, or someone building something new, these are practical tools for a fast moving world and they're available to anyone with a drive to grow. You can get started with a seven day free trial and it's one of the smartest investments you can make in yourself right now. Just head to Coursera, search Adobe or or click the link in my bio or description to check it out today. All right, welcome back to the Casey Adams Show. Today I am joined by a very special guest, Ariana Thacker, the founder of Moldco. Thank you so much for coming on the show today, Ariana. Of course. So first off, I am so blown away by your story and how the founding of Moldco came about and your transition from VC to then really stepping in and becoming a founder. And I kind of want to take it all the way back because I know when we first got introduced hearing your personal experience with old poisoning and I'll let you kind of dive into it, inspired this company and what problem you're looking to solve. And for those that may not know, we'd love for you to give a quick high level of what Moldco is before we really dive into your background and the story.

Yeah, absolutely. So founded Moldco, which is a virtual clinic for mold related illnesses and mold toxicity. So we offer specialized lab testing labs that you don't normally get through a primary care provider, even specialist providers through mainstream medicine. So that includes more esoteric Labs like MMP9, TGF Beta 1, MSH and then we also provide specialized healthcare too. So medications are shipped directly to your door and then we offer this concierge experience online and you have access to a patient portal where you can check chat with a doctor and a nurse at any time.

Amazing. And kind of take us back. What did this initial idea not only stem from, but when you said, hey, I want to go out and really start investing into R and D and building out this platform?

Yeah. So it started with a personal health journey that caught me by surprise. At the time, I didn't actually know that mold could cause this kind of health issue. I was aware of asthma and allergies and a fungal infection, but mold toxicity was a completely different animal altogether. And it commonly shows up as fairly significant brain fog, fatigue, gastrointestinal issues. A lot of patients also experience hair loss and sleep issues. And you can also have frequent urination and you're just not able to show up as your best self each day. It can also show up as mood changes, too often anxiety and depression. So, um, this, this connection, this mold health connection took me by surprise and it actually took me a handful of months to really make that connection. It was actually a friend that, that introduced me to that concept. So that, that inspired this journey. Luckily got back to better health through an evidence based protocol which we've now implemented through our virtual clinic. But yeah, that was the genesis of the story for mold co, that personal health journey and going through that experience.

Yeah. And I remember hearing on a different podcast, so this was like an apartment that you were living in and you didn't even know this is happening, Is that right?

Yeah, yeah. So it was hidden in the H Vac unit. And one of the telltale signs, which now I'm very aware of when I move into a new home, is dust on the vents. So like mold is, it eats organic matter and this can show up in the building materials. It can be dust in the H Vac system. So when you have that combined with some sort of water intrusion, which can be high humidity in the home, it doesn't have to be a flooding or a hurricane event. Then that's opportunity for mold to grow. And mold can start germinating in about 24 to 48 hours as soon as water intrusion happens. So unfortunately, there was aspergillus and penicillium throughout the H Vac unit. And I was inhaling these invisible microbial species, working from home and getting progressively more sick in the unit.

Wow. And even too, I think it's as someone that obviously is. We were talking beforehand, but is in this industry and going to soon a mold conference and understands this space to the highest degree. You mentioned some of these fatigue, depression and maybe some reactions that people might not think or kind of connect the dots to mold unless they Hear a podcast like this or it happens to them or a family member. How did you finally know that this was happening to you? And what should people more or less look out for? And I know that's what your company and all the research and R and D that you guys do can be helpful with, but what was that for you? And what are some key things that people should do? And we'll talk more about this at the end as well. But to really be aware of if this is happening to them or to kind of be. To get in front of it, I should say.

Yeah, great question. It's rarely just one symptom that presents. So it's a multi symptom, multi system issue. And when I mentioned system, that means brain, gastrointestinal. Just think beyond just one area of the body. So there's something called the symptom clusters online. And those are some of the more common published symptoms that you can experience. But for me personally, I didn't really have a history of health issues, so it was kind of surprising to then suddenly have this onset of health issues without a root cause that I was aware of at the time. So I would say one, if you relocate and start to experience some health issues, that could be a sign to look deeper into a potential mold issue. Or if you start to experience a whole host of symptoms after a flooding event or a hurricane, that's also another sign to tip off. But also just know that this issue is quite prevalent there. Several studies that show that around 50% of homes have dampness, water damage and or mold already present in the home. So yeah, it's, it's a fairly large issue. And just like rehashing some of the common symptoms, the brain fog. And that shows up more specifically as just not being able to recall words, not being able to have great memory. Like you just don't remember things that are said to you or that you read. So it shows up as a whole host of cognitive issues. And for gastrointestinal, intestinal, it's an. It can show up as alternating constipation, diarrhea, or just not able to ingest foods like before. Gluten sensitivity is a really common one too. So these are just some of the signs that, that impact the general population when they're exposed to mold.

Yeah, I mean, I, I think just even hearing that just takeaway is like it, it happens in multiple aspects, not just showing up in one specific area. And I think just hearing that as well, after this happened to you and this personal experience, first off, I would Love to know how did this take a toll on you mentally, physically? And what was that recovery process like? 1 on the physical side, but also the understanding of wow, I didn't know this was going on. And I'm sure that's so scary, infuriating and just so much curiosity of how do we prevent this? Which obviously leads to, you know, as so many great entrepreneurs are going to solve this problem for themselves, but hopefully others as well. Like, what was that process like for you from the recovery but also just the incubation of what became moldco?

Yeah, it was actually a very emotional experience. So not having doctors like neurologists or immunologists or allergists or my primary care provider even believe that I was experiencing these symptoms. And yeah, I found that really bizarre because I had rapid waking, I had a lot of my hair just falling out. So these were atypical symptoms for me. On top of just not being able to process information, just being so fatigued where I was in bed several hours a day. So just not being believed was very frustrating. And I entered this strong state of victimhood going through this journey and then having friends not believe that mold could cause these health issues too. Despite there being peer reviewed publications online and multiple anecdotes and Facebook groups with, you know, tens of thousands of people speaking out about this issue. So I just didn't really feel seen and I felt very alone in the process. And it, it also got me out of victimhood because then I had a different filter on life. I started chatting, chatting with more of my friends and they started sharing their mold experiences with it with themselves or their friends and family. So through that I actually found community eventually. But for a while it was just this state of okay, like is this just in my head, like what's actually going on? Why can't I find answers? And then even more frustrating is like, where's, where are the treatment options? How do I even get better? Is this going to be my life from now on? Do I just kind of doom line my future as an alternative to dreamlining, like, okay, I want to achieve all these things, but am I physically able to anymore? So it was actually quite, quite emotional?

No, absolutely. I can, I can imagine just the, especially when you have doctors, like as you mentioned, not believing or just not putting the connection together. It's like, why is like why do I feel unseen? And just the use case of like the practical example of having like now looking back, seeing, you know, how I'm sure so many people maybe are still going without treatment or don't even, they aren't even aware. Talk to me about the moment because I really do love the personal connection to a problem. And again for this is very severe health related. Sometimes people have a problem like, oh, I need a standing desk, let me make a standing desk. And it's a much less personal, health oriented problem. But for something so intimate, when you went out to go start this company, this idea of, you know, building this whole platform and really just a purposeful company that you've experienced, when was the moment for you when you're like, you know what, I'm gonna go start this. And I heard in the FIT Insider podcast that you did about how you were incubating and maybe looking for a CEO for this and coming from the venture world, maybe talk to me a little bit about your background and how this came about, what the initial goal and vision was and really how it evolved to where it is today in terms of your full time and all in mindset for this company.

Yeah, candidly, I was really reluctant to start this company. I, I really loved or I still love investing, I love early stage, I love working with founders. I, I think it's so fun. I, I love being a student. I love seeing something grow from nothing. I, I think that's just such a cool, cool experience. But this need was just so tremendous and it just felt so personal. And that coupled with, okay, I, I, I'm building this platform, I find the right pieces and the right people to lead and I'm just not finding the right CEO for this job. And I just couldn't see this not exist in the world. So it was a surprising redirection of life and I'm, I'm so happy that this, this redirection happened. Like, I feel so full of purpose and mission and I, I think it made a lot of what I went through worth it. And I hope to help others also recover and just know that solutions do exist and these aren't symptoms in your head and this is a prevalent problem and there are many others like you also suffering. So I think just being able to help patients just gives me a lot of joy. And yeah, I'm just really happy running this company. So I'm so glad this transition happened.

That's, that's amazing. And you know, for people that are listening and again, just whether they're going through this themselves or maybe a family member or maybe they, you know, listen to this and this happens to them later on when it comes to how they experience moldco as a customer, as a User. Walk me through that customer experience on how you guys work with customers and really that, you know, the viewpoint of how you operate overall.

Yeah. And also I want to say we're, we're listening really deeply to our, to our patients. We're getting a lot of feedback every day. So this could change just because we're getting so much feedback all the time. But the process right now is you can order labs at any time. One of our labs is actually offered at cost. It's $99 and it includes the three highest signal markers out there. And that's just genuinely to increase education and awareness around this issue. Those labs are actually very hard to get through primary care through even specialists. So having that available at the $99 price point is quite a game changer for these patients. Yeah, so we have that available. All cart. We have a more complete lab test available. We're expanding that. It looks like it's going to be now 16 different biomarkers. It's at a higher price point just because it's more expensive to run that lab panel. And then beyond that, we have concierged care. So we brought on a team of the pioneers in the space. So Dr. Shoemaker is our founding physician, so he led the research. Over 30 years of research and the protocol has been used in now over 30,000 patients. So synthesizing his life's work into a virtual clinic and working with him directly. And Dr. Scott McMahon, who's our full time medical director, we've also brought on other practitioners too. So patients go through the process working with the specialized practitioners being overseen by the medical director as well. And we offer the evidence based treatment. So the first step is something called Colacevolam and that's a prescription binder and that's used off label for this use case. It's the standard of care in mold toxicity. We then progress to a nasal spray that's EDTA based. It helps disrupt some of the biofilm that forms in your nasal passages. And then the final step is this VIP vaso intestinal peptide. It's also a nasal spray and that helps correct some of the immune dysregulation that these patients experience. So it's a three step protocol. We eliminate the guesswork. We know the right change points to then transition from step one to step two to step three. And we hold your hand through that journey. So that's all included in the concierge care package that we have available.

Very articulate answer to that. And thank you so much for sharing really how you and the company operate. And I think just hearing that even the $99 lab that you guys offer is so amazing to have that direct the low hanging fruit for customers to experience, kind of that first step into the ecosystem. And something that I'm sure a lot of people are curious about, that I am absolutely curious about, is when it comes to mold toxicity in America, how many people experienced this at any given time and moment? And has that grown over the years or what are some of the research data points that you and your team have seen?

Yeah, here's what we know today. So we know that there's a genetic susceptibility to mold, which is quite interesting. It shows up as something called an HLA haplotype. So what happens when you're exposed to these different, let's call them, invaders in the air. It's not just mold. It can be mycotoxins, it can be fragments of the mold, it can be different bacteria. But you're inhaling these invaders into your castle. Let's call your body a castle. And then the guards, your first line of defense, the innate immune system is helping to battle these invaders. For about 24% of the population, the guards aren't able to recognize the invaders. So the invaders keep coming in to the body. And what happens from there is that the invaders start to attack different parts of the body. And there's something called a cytokine storm that occurs. These are messengers of your immune system, but that goes haywire and it just continues to send out the alarm system, these messengers, the cytokines. So that causes the state of chronic inflammation where you have this unregulated cytokine storm. So now imagine the invaders coming in and now they're disrupting the pipes, like your blood vessels, the electrical system, the nervous system. They're ruining the communication system. Let's say you pretend you have a cell phone or phone line in the castle, they're cutting the cords there, so you're not able to send the right chemical messages in the body. So this is the havoc that occurs. And for the 24% that has the specific genetic susceptibility, that's the state of their castle. So that's one data point. And then the other data point is that, that 50% number. So there's various studies. I, I think the largest study that I was personally able to find after a lot of digging was over 12, 000 different homes. And it showed that 50% of homes have water damage, dampness and mold. And it takes 24 to 48 hours for mold. To start to form after you've had water damage. Right. Beyond that, there's also other studies that look at commercial buildings, where 85% of commercial buildings have had historic water damage, 45% have ongoing water damage. So grouping all these data points together, let's say you have that genetic susceptibility. You've been exposed either in your school, your workplace, your home, a prior home. Right. There's a lot of different areas that that can happen. I think the numbers could be as high as 30 million Americans impacted. And it shows up as other things. It shows up as chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia or early onset neurodegenerative issues or IBS or ibd. So it shows up as these other issues where mold could have been at the root cause of that, of that problem.

You said a survey of 12,000 homes, 50% had that mold toxicity that they found it was.

It was water. It was water damage, dampness, and mold. So they're measuring these three different aspects in the home. Yeah.

Wow, that is. That is scary. In one aspect of the unknown. And I'm sure it's. I mean, as someone that went through this yourselves, it's fascinating to just hear about and learn about myself, just this whole world. And I'm, you know, going through the process of, like, understanding your background and the research leading up to this. It's. It's a whole space that is just.

Yeah.

Unless it happens to you or someone, you know, it's like, whoa, this is scary. And I'm curious to know, you know, from the people that. And customers and individuals who experience this, you know, what are some of the risk factors here?

Right.

Like, if this happens to you? Again, I know you mentioned in your personal experience, but are there, like, different. The people that are susceptible that 24% versus the people that aren't, if this happens, like, what can happen if they don't seek care or kind of this goes on too long. What are some of the things to look out for? In other words, a long tail of how bad this can get for people if this happens to them?

Yeah. The symptoms can and often do get debilitating over a long enough period of time. It really just depends on your unique biology. Do you have the susceptibility or not? And that's. Just because you don't have the susceptibility doesn't mean you can't develop this issue as well if you're in the environment. It depends on how acute, like, how extreme that exposure was. Was there a lot of mold? Were you inhaling that every day. Like for example in my use case, we found over 35,000 spores per meter cubed in the H Vac system. I keep hearing anecdotally you don't want above 500. So that was a pretty intense exposure. And I worked from home, it was several days at home. So then over the course of around even just six and a half months of being in that unit, I developed this issue. So you know, the acuteness, how serious mold issue is in your home plays a factor, how long you're spending at home. I would say most people try to seek care some way somehow they're just not feeling their best. They go to their primary care provider, they have a whole host of different symptoms that are foreign to them. The primary care provider probably does labs. They're not able to find anything incorrect just because the lab's tied to the biotoxin illness pathway aren't really being used right. Like you may see other clues. You may see low ferritin is really common, you may see thyroid dysfunction in the labs, but you're not going to typically see like the labs that we test for the C4A, the MMP9, the TGF beta 1, the MSH. And I know that sounds like Greek and that's because it's just so not embedded in mainstream medicine nor screen four. And then after that I would say folks then try to go to functional care, they go to different clinics, they try to go to wellness centers, they spend a lot of money and time and effort doing these IV drips and expensive treatments and supplements, et cetera, and ultimately they feel failed by that. And then at this point they're probably at least $10,000 in. I've heard people spend over $500,000 entirely self pay trying to correct the symptoms for this issue. So it's a complicated problem. There aren't a lot of solutions readily available. And if you do find the solutions, it's often hard to find someone that's able to take care of you just because the folks that are specialized in this in an evidence based way aren't available nationwide. They have long wait lists and they're, they're quite expensive. Yeah.

Wow, that makes so much sense. And you know, in this era that we live in of preventative medicine and you know, with companies like Whoop and Aura where you can monitor, you know, your heart rate and all these different data points even when you know you're healthy and you just want to track this, I'm curious to know, you know, if someone's not experiencing toxicity. You mentioned that, you know, $99 lab test. How do you think and what is the mindset on like testing if you, you know, are. If you're not maybe experiencing symptoms might be gradual in the early innings. You're not even aware yet. Do you, do you and the team recommend people kind of do these samples to ensure or how do you think about the preventative side of this if this isn't happening yet, but maybe just moved in somewhere new? And should people make this a part of their annual aspect of checking or just so curious about how you think about that?

Yeah. And this is something I would love to see implemented is more environmental health screening questions at the primary care visit on an annual basis. For example, are you exposed to visible mold, earthy or musty odors? Do you have all the signs of water damage like the cracking or peeling paint, for example, or warping? It's very common to see mold in crawl spaces and basements. Or if you have a flat roof. Right. If you have a pitched roof, the water is actually able to trickle down more easily. But if it's flat, then you have a higher likelihood of having water damage in your home. So I'd love to see these types of questions integrated at the annual visit. I think if you're not experience.

Yeah.

And then if you're not experiencing symptoms, I think a lab test may be premature. So instead it makes a lot more sense to do a DIY checklist of your home. We have a free guide through the moldco website. It has a pretty detailed checklist of what you can go through and then also do some at home testing. So what our team typically recommends is something called a dust test. It's low cost. It was actually a research tool used by the epa. And what you can do is wipe down different surfaces in your home, look for dust, and it uses something called DNA pcr. But what that is is essentially just finds the lab through the lab, finds the fungal species in your home and gives you a quantitative amount of how much of that mold is present. So I think that's a really low cost, high signal tool to see if there's even mold in your home. And at that point it's just finding the point source. Okay, like how do we remove the mold or how do we minimize exposure or should we relocate? There's a more options for renters than owners. Owners often have to remediate. It's. You're. You're kind of in that situation. But renters could work with their landlord, potentially break the lease and there's also ways to isolate too. So I would start there. Environmental screening before labs if you're not having symptoms.

And that screening that you're referencing there, you said you got, you and the team have resources on this that maybe we could link below or where can people kind of, if they wanted to go after this episode and go kind of through this screening process at home, like where do they find that information?

Yeah, it's. It's on the Moldco website. So if you sign up for our newsletter, you actually get this free guide. And if you order a lab as well, we include the guide too. Or if you want to just like ping the support, we have a chat bot now. So if you're not able to find the guide, like one of our care navigators can, can hook you up pretty, pretty quickly.

That's amazing. I thank you for that. I think so many people that, including myself that, that you know, they may not be exposed, but the ability to test and kind of get ahead of it is super important. So appreciate you sharing that. I want to talk a little bit about the business context of moldco. I heard in another episode or another interview that you did about how when you were starting the company and you were raising capital, the round for the business came together. I think you said in a matter of weeks would love to hear your fundraising experience as a founder, but also given the context of being an investor and working in venture. What was that experience like for you on the other side of it?

Yeah, I think atypical for sure. It was definitely an advantage coming from venture. But I would say the years it took to build that network and trust was also non trivial like to raise conscience, for example. That took close to 600 rejections. I was building an LP that's, you know, LP is to VC fund manager as VC is to startup founder. So I was building an LP network from scratch as a, as a newcomer. So I think it was just like years of trust building with the right people and the right networks to have that round come together. And now the company's at a point where it's. It's not. The next round won't be dependent on trust or network. Right. Like we have to show that we have traction and we have to build a real business. So every founder gets, gets put to that, to that test. But I do feel really blessed that that initial round came together. We actually had a subsequent round too. So we've raised 11 million total now in the company. It's not so. Thank you. It's not so Public yet, but that's. That's where we're at, fundraising wise.

Breaking news. I appreciate you sharing that. That's amazing. I appreciate you sharing that. And congrats on. You know, I say congrats because I know, especially from the founder lens, like, not necessarily just congrats on the funding, but congrats on, like, the continuation of the mission and the backers that are supporting this incredible mission that you. That you're building. It's super inspiring and something that I. I think you'd find this.

This.

It's a fun story about even my podcast, because I totally get the years of building that LP network and the work that went into that. My whole fun fact about even this podcast is I started when I was 17 and I've done now 500 interviews. And when I raised a round of funding for my last tech startup, we had 37 angel investors and pretty much all of them were past guests on the podcast. And it was just this full circle moment where it wasn't like I was starting the show to go meet a bunch of future investors. It was just, you know, the investor network. I was interviewing tons of investors when I was starting my new company, I was getting tons of feedback, and it ended up just being this domino effect of seeing how it came full circle from building this, you know, the show, the people that came on. And I think for me, when we raised that first round, by any means, it was still challenging. But looking back, I was like, wow. Like that the network really manifested to really make this process in my eyes a lot easier. The mentors that helped and the advisors. So I totally relate to you in terms of the things that people don't see and how the years of effort at kind of come full circle in a moment where it kind of came together, as you said, quickly. But the context there is amazing to hear.

Oh, thank you. Yeah. Your journey's absolutely incredible. And I'm sure there is no lack of preparation for that opportunity as well. Right? It's just half the battle, just getting in front of the right people. But then you have to convince them too. And that requires a data room and a solid pitch and a business plan, et cetera. So there's just so much more beyond the network phase.

Yeah, totally. No, absolutely. I want to talk about the team at Moldco1. How big is the team now? And I want to talk about even the culture in your eyes and from the early days to where the company is today, because again, this company and the mission that you and the team are on, it's very. Not only specific, but it's incredibly impactful in a vertical that. That including people like myself, may not have been familiar with unless you start understanding this problem and understanding what people go through if you have a personal tie to it. So I would love to get context in your eyes as a founder, team culture, and of course, hear more about the company in terms of the inside narrative around how everyone thinks about this problem and why they decided to join you on this mission.

Yeah, absolutely. I was initially using this phrase intensely cuddly, which I still love, but it got rebranded.

I like that.

Rebranded to intensely human. There's like an ink article that came out.

Yeah.

And I think everyone on the 10 on the team is intense. Like, they're definitely main character energy type A. Like, they, they get. They get stuff done and, and quickly and effectively. So the team very much has all of that, but they're. They're also just. Just super great and kind and just generally awesome to work with. Like, it's. It's such a joy to come to work. And when I say come to work, we're actually like virtual. So come to work in the Slack channel that we're on and zoom meetings. And we have about 20 people full time now. We are international. We've hired people all over. So as a startup, we got creative, we've done offshore hiring. We've hired from probably the most random cities in the U.S. like Roswell, New Mexico.

Wow.

Yeah.

Love that.

We have two hires there actually.

Okay. Yeah, that's amazing.

Yeah, great, great talent can be anywhere. But. Yeah. And beyond that, we also have 20 contractor hires too, and they're. They're tapped as needed. So, yeah, it's a. It's a pretty, pretty large team and cohesive and how the team has evolved since. Since founding, I think the DNA and the culture has. Has stayed the same. Like, everyone still maintains this intensely cuddly or intensely human vibe. So it's great.

Yeah, that's one. I love the phrase two. It's so cool to hear, you know, not only the growth, but the. The team itself. And I'd be curious, in terms of team members, have any of them dealt with this mold toxicity themselves? Or maybe that's a commonality of why people, like, heard about it or joined. But I'd be curious to hear if anyone on the team has experienced this.

2. Two of our team members are actually undergoing treatment through our clinic. Yeah. And they discovered the issue after joining the company. So they're dysregulated, they've responded to Treatment, they're feeling better, they found mold in their environment, et cetera, et cetera.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah, so that was, that was a really interesting story. And then one of our providers, how she got into the space was actually due to her mold toxicity story. So. Yeah. And then obviously, like, I, I've been dealing with this as well, but. Yeah, but we make a point to get almost everyone on the team tested and check. Check in. Yeah, that's.

No, that's. I sense that, you know, the, the intensity, the tense cuddly, as you'd say. Just. Yeah. People that are experiencing it or learn, that are joining the company that understand like, wow, this is a big problem and then get to go through it. That's. I figure there's, you know, either someone that has went through it and they got called to really want to join this mission. So that, that's. Appreciate you sharing that context.

Yeah. And they often come into the company, like during the interview process with like a friend or a family member or someone close in their life that dealt with this problem too. So there's often a personal story beyond them themselves. Yeah, yeah, I know.

That's amazing. When it comes to your time as a founder, Ariana, where do you spend your time, you know, week by week? How has it changed over time? And what's really the most exciting part of not only what you're building, but, you know, I'm sure from the research, from the, you know, the, the studies that come out, like, what is something that maybe you've. You found yourself doing in the last year within the company that you weren't expecting to start doing or something that's just exciting or this unique edge case.

Oh my gosh. So many different things. Where to start? I, I feel like I'm, I'm pulled in a lot of different directions because, mainly because I'm a solo founder. But one interesting bucket that I don't really speak enough about is the R D portion to what we're doing. So we've amassed this very large biobank. We have these patient history forms, we've acquired as well, healthy controls. So I would say as an entity, we have more data and information on what this illness is than I would say any academic or biopharma group in the world. So that's pretty cool. And now we're going to start the sequencing process. So now we're sequencing the biobank against these healthy controls to really have as many insights as possible. How does this illness actually work? And then the vision from there is to pioneer the next generation of biomarkers and treatments for this illness. So far it's been 30 years of research, largely constrained to these private groups like clinical researchers that haven't had a lot of funding historically. They haven't been able to use AI or high throughput screening or any of these like really cool tools that are available today. So I think we have a fairly great shot of finding that next generation of treatments that are just so much more effective and even affordable. So that's what I get really excited about is laying the picks and shovels for that. Beyond that. Yeah, beyond that. I've been innovating on a business model where the concept is, okay, how do we partner with anyone? And it showed up as Neapolitan flavor. So chocolate, vanilla, strawberry with toppings, sprinkles, fudge and nuts. And you're probably like, what do you mean? So I want, I want partnering with us to be as easy as picking out ice cream. So whether you're a clinic, you can, you can integrate with our care services, whether you're an influencer, we have a partnership for you, whether you're a gym, whether you're a tech company and that can show up as embeddable widgets, that can show up as promos and affiliates, et cetera. So we make it as easy as like selecting iStream when you're working with us. So that's been a lot of fun and I've just been chatting with a lot of different partners in the ecosystem, getting our name out there and hacking that.

Yeah, that's, that's so cool to hear. Again, I appreciate you sharing all that context and I think what's fascinating to me is what you said about the like the R and D side of like owning this vertical and having as you mentioned, like, like some of the most in depth research and studies and being that like pick and shovel of this industry that maybe was overlooked and you know, it took a founder like yourself to really lean in and to bring this to the more public eye and to have a solution here. When it comes to the R and D itself, I'd be curious to know how, when it comes to, you know, budget for R and D or how you and the team think about R and D and how that shifts over time. I, you know, I would assume it's just a continuous investment over the lifespan of the company. But how do you think about the future of the R and D internally given that in my eyes there's this advantage and foundational structure of where all this information is in your hands. In the company.

Yeah, I think about this in a few different ways. So one, it's phases of R and D. So it's not putting all of our chips on the R and D that all at once. Right. Like, so it's, it's staging it in a very systematic way. So even though we have thousands of biobank samples, we're just sequencing the first 200. And we are really careful about selecting which samples that we want to sequence. So that's one gate and then the, the next gate is. Okay, how do we analyze that data in silico using software available off the shelf so we don't have to develop that. That in house. There's a lot of this really great software you can use. And then how do we acquire a drug library, for example, also off the shelf, and then plug that into the software? Right. So we don't even have to touch anything in vitro, in the lab, or even human studies. And then that's another de risking point. So it's developing the strategy so that you're putting these small chips on the table that are relatively low resource, low time, low cost, getting as many insights as possible and seeing. Okay, is this really a viable path for the company? Right, because our thesis is. Yes. And then our thesis as well is, okay, no one really owns mold illness, mold toxicity. So that's really compelling from like a capitalist standpoint. But also from a capitalist standpoint. Right. You have to show traction. It has to be a viable business as well. So how much of the R and D is prioritized now? I would say it's secondary to delighting patients, figuring out how to deliver a product that works for patients, and also something that we can scale to. So it's these competing priorities, but ultimately R and D comes second and it'll play more of a role over time. But it also takes time to get these insights. So starting now with the small chips on the table, I think is the right, right approach.

Yeah, no, I think that makes. Makes so much sense. And I. Great context there. And something that's popped in my mind throughout this conversation that I'd be so curious about is when it comes to, I mean, you mentioned this. You know, it could be up to 30 million Americans that deal with this globally. When I think about maybe like underdeveloped countries and maybe the lack, you know, you mentioned like flat roof versus this, more slanted roofs globally, a problem of again, like underdeveloped countries. Like, like, how do you and the team think about this on a global scale? I know this Is that's a loaded question as we start wrapping up here. But I'd just be so fascinated to hear how big of a problem this maybe is internationally and how you and the team think about that.

Yeah, I mean some data points we have, people have reached out to us from other countries asking if they can travel to the US to get our care. So we know it's a global issue, we know it's actually a well known issue in the UK for example. And then how we think about it from a global strategy. The medications we use are relatively low cost and they're off label. The first step is an off label generic for example. So I think that lends itself really well to a global strategy. It's not like a new chemical entity that's FDA approved only in the US or super expensive. So I just think it's a very accessible, affordable solution that can be plug and play. Where we see limitations in that though is that the labs aren't readily available in every other country. So that's a hurdle. Even in developed countries like the uk it's really hard to get the lab testing that we do. They do have the medications available except for the third step. So getting that compounding peptide is really challenging. I'm already chatting with folks trying to find workarounds to that like, okay, how do we export the compounded medications from the US abroad or can we get this medication FDA approved for another indication and then have it available off label there as well? So I think it's going to require creative workarounds to have the full stack solution available in other countries. But we do know that it's a global problem and there are pieces that can be available and affordable in these other countries too.

That's great to hear and it's awesome to hear that low hanging fruit of the more generalized version that you could be a good solve there to start. So very cool to hear as we start wrapping up here. Ariana, when you think about the future of Moldco, what excites you the most around? Not only the product itself, but the future of the research and the different components of the business that you're building.

I think the most exciting thing will be getting the testimonials in. So getting those life changing testimonials that we changed, you know, XYZ person's life pretty meaningfully. So I just can't wait for that. Like I just can't wait to get like the tens of thousands of or even millions of those coming in. So that's what I'm most Excited about.

That is absolutely exciting. And then last thing you know, as, as someone that's gone through this problem so personally, which, as we mentioned throughout the show, has inspired what has become moldco. If you could go back to the version of you that was dealing with this issue, this problem, knowing what you know now, what. What would you tell yourself? And for someone that may be listening, that's somewhat upon this episode that may be dealing with this, like, what would you know? What would you want to tell them?

I would say don't get discouraged. Real solutions exist. And I would have encouraged myself to start MoldCo sooner and not have any hesitation. Don't look for another CEO. Just lean in hard. It's the right path. And yeah, I'm just so grateful for being able to have the opportunity to build something like this. So it just brings me a lot of joy. And yeah, what else could I share? Get an air purifier as well. Yeah, I mean, there's just so many lessons learned throughout the journey.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Very well said. And as we wrap up here, I want to ask where's the best place for people that are, you know, that made it this far in the episode for them to learn more about moldco, stay up to date with all the incredible products and innovations and the research you and the team are working on. And then of course, where's the best place to stay in touch with you? Because I.

So yeah, so find us@moldco.com m o l d co.com mold is spelled m O U L D in other countries. So just mindful of that, we actually bought that domain as well. And then, yeah, you can reach out to us directly at Support moldcom. I actually personally read all those emails and our team responds usually in 24 or 48 hours. So if you have a question or if you're not certain about anything, just reach out and we can help you out.

I love it. Well, Ariana, again, thank you so much for, for taking the time today and congratulations on everything. Very inspired by your story and looking forward to following along the journey ahead.

Thank you. Casey, great questions, really appreciate it.